Campaign Timeline: AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

The AAA Executive Board first called for a detailed report on the issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian in the summer of 2014. To do so, it created the Task Force on AAA Engagement on Israel-Palestine. For a one-year duration, this group devoted its time to researching the conflict and studying its effects on education. Unfortunately, the Task Force was heavily biased in its approach, in terms of where they traveled and whom members of the group talked to. Additionally, one of its several recommendations to AAA was to establish a boycott, which led to the anti-Israel campaign to begin in full-force.

On August 1, 2014, the AAA Executive Board announced the formation of the Task Force on the AAA Engagement on Israel/Palestine. On October 1, 2015, the Task Force released its 130-page report, detailing its methodology, findings, and recommendations for the AAA. Issues focused on in the report include human rights in Israel and Palestine, as well as access to education, freedom of movement, and tensions in Jerusalem, amongst other obstacles. Recommendations for the AAA included — but did not necessitate — a boycott of Israel academic institutions, although the Task Force report was cited as a justification for one.

The Anthropologists for Dialogue in Israel/Palestine (ADIP) Response

In response to both the biased Task Force report, as well as the possibility of the AAA voting to endorse a boycott, pro-Israel anthropologists formed the group Anthropologists for Dialogue in Israel/Palestine (ADIP). From all over the world, this group worked to protect academic freedom and affirmed the continued need for cooperation, rather than divisiveness, to end the conflict. To that end, ADIP created numerous videos, fliers, testimonies, and other resources explaining what would really happen if the AAA voted to boycott Israel. These resources can be found by visiting ADIP’s website.

Other Press

Marc Edelman, “Outsized Outrage: American Anthropologists and the Gifts of BDS.” PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. | View |

Ted Gup, “Anthropologists’ Israel Boycott: Long on Sanctimony, Short on Promise.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. | View |